dog

I’ve given up on having someone to travel with, so this writing retreat was my second solo trip…though this one wasn’t technically solo, since I brought my dog.
A lot of women have told me they’d never be “brave enough” to travel alone. I tell them to connect with their inner badass and give it a try!
The big plus to traveling solo is that I get to do exactly what I want, when I want. My schedule, my interests, all the time.
So for example, I loved this view and spent a good ten minutes just standing and staring at it. It’s not exciting and isn’t on any “must see” list. I just liked it.
The big minuses to traveling solo are safety concerns.
Taking a road trip alone with a dog provides some logistical hurdles…like I had to leave her alone in the car while I ran into places to use the restroom.
Then there are just the safety issues of being a woman traveling alone.
But by far, the most frustrating problem I faced was on the hiking trails. I like to go off the beaten path, but that’s not the smartest idea for ANYONE hiking alone.
If you sprain an ankle or take a tumble when you’re alone, it’s a lot easier to get back to your car if you have the help of a hiking partner.
Plus, if something did happen, no one would miss me for days. (Especially when you consider a lot of the time I didn’t have a cell signal.)
I didn’t let this stop me, but I did move slower and more deliberately. (And I’ll be honest, things were more complicated with the dog. More than once I ended up in a stream because I lost my balance as she tugged on the leash.)
I avoided some spots altogether if I determined the footing looked too unsafe.

Overall, I had a great time on my writing retreat. I managed to relax AND get a lot of writing done on not one, but two novels…and a screenplay.
I accomplished my major goals for the two-week period. I received some major signs and confirmations from the Universe.
I can’t wait to do it again.
BUT…it wasn’t perfect.
I’m not telling you this because I’m complaining. I’m sharing what went wrong because I hate when people only share the “positives”. It paints an unrealistic picture that some people live perfect lives and I don’t want to do that.
I don’t love traveling by myself. I do it because I hate staying home even more, but in a “perfect” world, I’d have someone to go with; a significant other or a friend. But that wasn’t to be. ((shrug))
For the Georgia part of my stay, the RV I was staying in wasn’t balanced correctly, so I battled motion sickness the whole time. (Luckily, because I tend to over-prepare, I’d brought Dramamine with me, but that makes me groggy.)
And I set off the carbon monoxide detector in the middle of the night because I’d turned off the roaring fan that was giving me a headache.
And there was a tornado watch.
For the most part it was windy, wet and gloomy while I was there.
As for my North Carolina stay in the tiny house….
The toilet didn’t flush on the day I arrived.
The woman who owned the place sent her adult son over to plunge it. He complained that his girlfriend was sick. I took “sick” to mean “strung out” since he was pretty obviously needing a fix.
Yeah, that was kind of alarming.
He went to get a “better” plunger from a house fifty yards away and didn’t return for another two hours. Even then it wasn’t fixed. I had to deal with two plumbers in the space the next day (remember it was a TINY house) but eventually it was fixed.
Also, the outdoor seating area was infested with carpenter bees. I don’t have much fear of carpenter bees, but they’re big and loud and they scared the dog on a regular basis.
Then we had a couple days of torrential rainfall. (I heard locals say they’d never seen such heavy rain before.) Not a big deal.
EXCEPT….there were only two places to sit in the tiny house, the wooden chair and the bed. Two days of shifting from one uncomfortable seat to another to write bothered my back.
Plus, the rain triggered an invasion of ants. Which in turn meant I had an exterminator in the space a couple of days later. No big deal, but a little annoying.
And then there was the incident with the bear.
I was out hiking with the dog, on a section of path with precarious footing, when all of the sudden this big ball of black fur came barreling toward us through the trees.
I pretty much had a heart attack.
Again, I don’t have a big fear of black bears, having encountered quite a few over the years when I lived in NJ. I know that normally making noise and waving my arms will keep them away. But since it was springtime, I was afraid it was a momma bear defending her cubs. (Plus, my dog has never encountered a bear before and I wasn’t sure how she would behave.)
It wasn’t until it was just a few feet away that I realized it wasn’t a bear. It was a Newfoundland dog. Now, I love Newfies, but if you’ve never seen one, you have to understand that they’re BIG dogs. They’re about four feet tall and weigh at least 150 pounds. And when they’re running at you through thick vegetation, they totally pass for bears!
So if you ever see me use one in the CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN series, you’ll know that this scare was where I got the inspiration!
Like I said, overall I had a great time. A good part of that was due to my attitude. I was determined to make the best of it. But that doesn’t mean it was perfect.

Writing all the words — On any given day I worked on at least two, sometimes four, different projects

Meditating — I’ve talked about it before, but meditation is a big part of my daily routine.

Spending time in nature — The hiking trails around Asheville are amazing.

BUT….I did take a break on a couple of days to refill my creative well but visiting the Asheville Arts District. So much fun (and dog friendly too, so I exposed Smudge to some culture…not that I think she appreciated it, lol).
My favorite shop there was the GREAT COSMIC HAPPY ASS CARD COMPANY.
I mean who wouldn’t love a store with a name like that and products like these?!?!

One of the reasons I chose to go to North Carolina in mid-April was that I miss Spring.
There are some really great things about living in southwestern Florida, but one of the negatives is that we don’t really have a a change of seasons. I wanted that, so I went out and found it for myself.
I spent a good deal of time on my writing retreat on hiking trails.
I realize that could sound counter-intuitive to getting writing done, but it’s actually a huge help. Being out in nature always fuels my creativity and helps me come up with new ideas.
The act of walking tends to help me sort through the jumble of ideas I’ve got tangled up in my head.
When I was walking with Donna of Girl Who Reads we came across this:

I must admit that I didn’t follow its advice. I hiked for miles alone. (Well, the dog was with me, but she’s no Lassie….if I fell and needed help, she wasn’t going to go find Timmy for me.)
Because I’d seen that sign, I did find myself humming Green Day’s “I walk alone” on a pretty continuous loop.
So if you see a character named Greenday in one of my future works, you’ll know where it came from…. 😉

I stopped in Georgia on my way to my writing retreat for a very special reason.
I REALLY wanted to meet Donna, who runs the fabulous GIRL WHO READS book blog.
Donna was one of the first reviewers to write a review of my first book, THE FIRST VICTIM back in 2011 and she’s reviewed every one of my books since.
Thankfully, considering there was a storm, including a tornado watch (gulp!) Donna was super flexible about meeting with me. We met at a park, so that I could bring my dog, Smudge along, after the storm broke.
Donna made us a delicious picnic lunch and we just had the best time, talking and walking and laughing for hours. She’s smart, charming and so much fun!

On my way to my North Carolina writing retreat I stopped off just outside of Athens, Georgia.
Since this was my first road trip with my dog, and I wasn’t sure how she’d do spending so much time in the car, I decided to spend two nights here to break up the trip.
But because I’m a bit on the quirky side, I decided to satisfy my long-standing curiosity about RV/Campers and stay in one. I really want to set a series based on an RV trip. I even planted the seeds for it in THE HITWOMAN TAKES A ROAD TRIP.
I decided I could justify my stay as “research”.
Plus, I wanted to get a feel for whether I want to rent one next year and take myself on a cross-country adventure. I figured two nights of dealing with the small space would give me an idea how I felt about it.
This one was parked on a small farm.
I’d like to say I loved the experience, but I had mixed feelings. It wasn’t the limited space that was a problem for me; it was the movement (even though it was parked the whole time).
Maybe it was because it was fairly windy (there was even a tornado watch for a few hours) but I ended up with motion sickness.
Then, because I was feeling so sick, I turned off the ROARING fan in the hopes I could get some sleep. I did for a few hours until the carbon monoxide detector alarm went off at 3:18 a.m. waking me and scaring the dog, who then started barking her head off.
I guess that even with the windows cracked, you shouldn’t turn off the fan. Who knew?

I’m a full-time novelist so it may sound strange to say that I decided to go on a writing retreat. But I did and it was totally worth it. This month I’ll be talking all about it!
Why go on a writing retreat?
I wanted to do something different to shake up my writing routine. I had a project to finish, another I wanted to get started, and a fun, passion project I wanted to play with.
Also, I miss Spring. While there’s a lot to love about living in southwest Florida, one of the things I miss, being a NJ transplant, is the change of seasons.
I also wanted a change of topography. It’s soooo flat around here. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that the average elevation in Sarasota is 16 feet. That’s not a typo, SIXTEEN!
So I decided to go to the Asheville, North Carolina area in mid-April. Spring! Mountains! No neighbors to get stuck talking to!
I made my plans in January, got the “business side” of my writing world squared away so I only had to focus on the creative end, packed my car, buckled in my dog, and took off.
But before we got to Asheville, we stopped in Georgia because there was something I wanted to try and someone I really wanted to meet!
I’ll tell you about those soon, but let me share the good omen that greeted me in Georgia.
When I was a kid, my favorite book was HORSE OF TWO COLORS so this scene made me happy.

Do you follow me on Instagram?
My feed is a lot like me….quirky and obsessed with coffee, dogs and nature, with the occasional book or WTF moment thrown in for good measure.
Here’s a sample of what you’ve missed:

I’m owned by a dog. Her name is Smudge.
When people ask what she is, I tell them she’s 100 percent mutt. She was about two years old when I adopted her five years ago. She was a little sick and a lot scared.
But with time, training and a little patience, she’s turned into an amazing companion, which is why I strongly encourage people to consider adopting adult dogs.
(Do we think that’s Armani’s Scrabble tile bag?!?!)

I tell her that she’s cuter than the dog featured on the cover of A WOOF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING, but I might be biased. What do you think?
While investigating the disappearance of a psychic matchmaker, Detective Brian Griswald meets dog trainer Stephanie Browne, a beautiful woman who can be just as prickly as the rescue mutts she works with.
Like her dogs, Stephanie’s not quick to trust, which is why she rejects the charming detective when he tries to pursue a relationship with her, but when Brian is dragged into a case involving Stephanie’s beloved dogs, the two must work together to find the truth.
Solving the mystery proves challenging for both of them and dangerous for Stephanie. Can Brian and a canine cavalry save her before it’s too late?